MOTAC1LLA. 
82 
to feed at the houfe where Vaillant lodged, he took the 
pains to watch for whole days together, to afcertain the 
quantity of food they might take, and how many meals 
they made in a day. A male and female who came regu¬ 
larly together feveral times a-day into his room, he hav¬ 
ing had the precaution of placing food they were fond of 
within their reach, coni timed in the courfe of four and 
twenty hours about a quarter of an ounce of fat between 
them, for they had no young at that time. Their vifits 
were at fixed times; they generally came about break of 
day, at eleven in the morning, at three in the afternoon, 
and about funfet; as foon as they were fatisfied, they re¬ 
turned to the thickets; and never failed to repeat their 
vifits the next day, though he often caught one or other 
of them and detained it fome time; and had fixed a bit 
of red tape to each of them, that he might always be able 
to diftinguifh that couple. And they well knew their be¬ 
nefactor, as he fays; for, when hunting near the fpot, they 
would follow him for five hundred paces, flying from bufh 
to bufh, the male repeating his little long of frit-frit-frit, 
fritraratiti, frit-tatariti, wagging his long tail and flap¬ 
ping his wings. “ The feafon of love being come, (con¬ 
tinues Vaillaint,) I found the vifits of my two comrades 
become lefs frequent. Whether they were fully occu¬ 
pied in that which blunts every other tafte, and fo gave 
themfelves up in folitude to the company of each other ; 
or whether, the rains being over, and the infeCts re-ap¬ 
pearing every-where, they found plenty of food out of 
doors, certain it is that I now faw them very feldom. 
This negleCt lafted more than a fortnight; after which 
they fuddenly renewed their vifits with more affiduity 
than ever, and I prefently difcovered the interefted mo¬ 
tive which brought them back. In their former vifits, 
they had not failed to take notice of the wool, mofs, and 
hemp, which I ufed in fluffing dead animals, for my table 
was always loaded with fuch materials : finding it no 
doubt more convenient to come to me, therefore, to get 
materials fora neft, than to fly about and pick the woolly 
down from the fhrubs, they often carried away pieces 
bigger than themfelves. 
“ Having watched them, I foon found the fituation 
they had chofen for conflruCling the cradle which was to 
contain the fruit of their loves, which the female, from 
her fize, appeared quite ready to depofit. In one corner 
of my friend Slader’s kitchen-garden, near a little fpring, 
and under the fhade of the only tree in the place, grew 
one of thofe tall plants called by the colonifts at the Cape 
eapoc-bofc/ije, or woolly or downy tree : here I found my 
pair of birds had begun their operations, having covered 
the bed or fork of the fhrub with a layer of mofs to receive 
their woolly nefl. The fir ft materials were laid on the 
nth of OClober; the labour of the fecond day produced 
a mis-fhapen mafs of about four inches thick, the diame¬ 
ter five or fix : this was the foundation of the neft, which 
confifted of mofs, fome flax interwoven with bits of herbs, 
and a good deal of wool prefled and platted together. 
The whole of the fecond day I remained near the neft, 
which the female never quitted during the hours of la¬ 
bour, that is, from the moment I opened my windows 
till ten in the morning, and from five o’clock in the even¬ 
ing till feven.- During the morning of the 12th, the male 
made twenty-nine journeys to my room to fetch materials, 
(from the garden to the houfe was about one hundred 
paces at the mod,) and in the evening feventeen only : 
he however afiifted the female a good deal in treading the 
wool with his feet, and prefting it with his body in order 
to make a firm but foft mattrefs. When the male ar¬ 
rived with a piece of wool or mofs in his bill, he laid it 
down at the edge of the neft, or in the fork of a branch 
within reach of the female, and then away he flew for an¬ 
other load ; thus having made four or five journeys with¬ 
out interruption, then he fet to work to help the female 
in the conftruCtion of the neft, which pleafing toil was 
frequently interrupted by mutual careffes, though the fe¬ 
male often appeared very impatient at being impeded in 
the needful tafk of finiihing the neft, and would endeavour 
to beat off the male, but he generally fucceeded in making 
her fubmit, and then proclaimed his victory and happinefs 
by a long: this I have feen repeated eight times in one 
morning. On the third day, this couple began to raife 
the fides or walls of the neft. Having made the bottom 
even by treading it and rubbing their breads againft it, 
then by turning over they formed firft a flat ledge, which 
they afterwards railed up by leaning and pufiiing againft 
it; they increafed the height by heaping on wool previ- 
oufly beaten and preffed within the neft with their breafls 
and pinions, taking care to pierce it with their bills alfo, 
in order to interweave a more folid mafs. The branches 
of the fhrub were entirely included in the exterior thick- 
nefs of the neft, no part of them appearing within. 
“ This labour demanded a confiderable quantity of 
materials, and indeed I was aftoniflied to fee how much 
they ufed. On the feventh day, the neft was finifhed, ex¬ 
cept fome little reparation in certain parts. Putting in 
my finger on that day, I felt an egg, which had been laid 
probably that very day; for on the evening before, the 
top not being covered in, I could fee no egg. This beau¬ 
tiful edifice, when completed, was as white as fnow, about 
nine inches high outlide, but fo thick that it was not 
above five inches high at the mod within. Its outward 
lhape was very irregular, on account of the branches 
which it was neceffary to work in ; but the interior was 
exaCtly in the lhape of a hen’s egg with the narrow end 
upwards, the greateft diameter five inches, the fmaller one 
four. The aperture, or entrance, appeared to be at lead 
two-thirds or the total height of the neft as feen from 
without, but it was in faCt very little above the floor or 
bottom within; this aperture was an inch and a half wide, 
and entirely round. The infide of the neft was fo finely 
wrought, and fo fmooth, as to look like beautiful linen 
cloth a little worn; the texture was fo firm and clofe, 
that nothing could be pulled away without tearing it. 
This folid edifice, however, required feven days’ hard la¬ 
bour; preffing and rubbing the materials with their 
breads, beating them with their pinions ; interweaving 
threads of wool, by driving them through with their bills, 
See. the work'is indeed admirable, when we confider the 
weaknefs of the architects. All was complete, and an 
egg laid, on the evening of the 18th of OCtober. On the 
19th I found a fecond egg, which was laid in the morn¬ 
ing ; no egg was laid on the 20th. O11 the azd, at my 
firft vifit, I found the fourth, and the fame evening the 
fifth. On the 23d no egg. On the 24th in the morning 
another egg ; and ,a feventh on the morning of the 25th, 
on which day the female began to fit. The eggs were 
all of a pale green, with rufous-brown fpots. I obferved, 
that, during the whole time of building and laying, the 
neft was conftantly watched; the male or female, often 
both, kept near at hand, conftantly alarmed at any vifit 
of curiofity, or at the approach of any other birds whom 
fuch a commodious habitation would have fuited very 
well, and who often endeavoured to take poffelfion ; and 
I believe, that, without my affiftance, it would have been 
feized upon by a pair of titmice, who were ftronger than 
the owners. Thefe kinds of burglaries are not unfre¬ 
quent among birds, efpecially thofe whole nefts are con- 
ftruCled in this manner; fo that I have many times ob¬ 
ferved the poffeffors of a neft not to be the birds that built 
it. It is not therefore among men only that the weak 
are opprefled by the ftrong. 
“ The male and female lat upon the eggs alternately $ 
and I was as regular as they; for, excepting when at 
meals or at reft, I kept watching them continually, con¬ 
cealing myfelf in a neighbouring thicket. The male 
however did not take fo great a lhare in hatching as the 
female ; for Ihe often remained on the eggs for three 
hours together, but he never more than half an hour at 
a time; and that was only when Ihe was obliged to quit 
her poll in quell of food; and then Ihe foon returned 
ftraight to the neft, called out the male, and took his place; 
